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Hockey

Connor McDavid scores hat trick in win

After losing all four meetings last season, the reinforced Calgary Flames viewed Wednesday night as an opportunity to prove they can hang with the Edmonton Oilers.

Connor McDavid saw things differently.

So he went out and made sure the visitors understand the Battle of Alberta pecking order by scoring all three goals in a 3-0 season-opening victory.

Basically, he went all McDavid on them. And the Flames, despite adding a new goalie and a top four defenceman in the off-season, didn’t have an answer.

“I know exactly how those defencemen in Calgary feel right now,” said Edmonton blueliner Oscar Klefbom, after watching McDavid score on a one-timer and then make it 2-0 with a burst of terrifying speed. “I play against him in every single practice. It’s tough. He makes you look silly. I see their frustration. He’s so fast, and that control with the puck is really fun to see.”

It wasn’t exactly a barn burner, just 1-0 midway through the third, thanks to newly acquired Flames netminder Mike Smith, but when you’ve got McDavid, things just seem to have a way of working out in the end.

And they did.

“The biggest thing I noticed is he raises the level of everyone else,” said Oilers forward Ryan Strome, who was kind of in awe after his first game as McDavid’s teammate. “Everyone tries to keep up with him and be as fast as him and work as hard. When you see your leader doing that you want to follow.

“And exceptional performance and I’m sure there’s many more to come.”

McDavid, who set the tone early with a partial breakaway on his first shift, was dangerous all night. He made it 1-0 at 11:01 of the first period, then blew past defencemen Travis Hamonic and TJ Brodie like they were statues to put the Flames away for good eight minutes into the third.

Then, with a Gretzky-like flair for theatrics, completed the hat-trick with 59-seconds left to once again move into the NHL scoring lead.

“It’s nice, a good way to start, I guess, but we have a ways to go here,” he said afterward. “It feels good tonight, but we have a long way.”

Blowing the doors off of two elite NHL defencemen, both of whom had angles on him, brought gasps from every corner of the arena.

“It’s what he does,” said head coach Todd McLellan. “He doesn’t go from first to second to third to fourth gear. He just goes from first to fourth and he’s gone. He was fresh and I think they had pieces of their fourth line out so he was able to take advantage of it.

“What was impressive about that goal was that the puck rolled all the way down the ice and he was still able to knock it down when he needed to and then put it in a little hole. A hell of a night by him and a good night by everybody around him.”

At the other end of the ice, Cam Talbot posted a 26-save shutout on a night when then Oilers put 45 the other way (nine of them off the stick of Klefbom).

McLellan liked that aspect of the win as much as he liked the hat-trick.

“The way we won, the ability to defend, was important for us,” he said. “When we started last year, I thought we were outscoring our mistakes. Tonight we didn’t make very many of them so we didn’t need to do that. So a real positive sign for us but we’ve got work to do.”

So do the Flames, after getting walked over like that.

“He (McDavid) had the goals, but it wasn't just about him,” said head coach Glen Gulutzan. “They beat us in almost every department. They won the battles on the wall. They were clean on their breakouts. They made plays. They threw pucks to the net. I thought their team was all-around better than us tonight. We have got to better."

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